The country’s budget chief has identified the top five budget priorities under the Marcos Jr. administration.
Specifically, these are education, health, social safety nets, infrastructure and agriculture.
During the Post-State of the Nation Address (SONA) Economic Briefing yesterday, Budget Secretary Amenah Pangandaman said education will remain on top of the budget priorities as mandated by the constitution.
On health, Pangandaman highlighted the importance of a healthy and vibrant citizenry and their increased productivity in society.
On social safety nets, she noted the need to provide funding to support the disadvantaged sector.
“We will prioritize the provision of assistance to the vulnerable and disadvantaged sectors,” Pangandaman said.
On infrastructure, she said the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) will provide funding support for the continuity of the Build, Build, Build Program.
“As directed by the President, we shall continue with the Build, Build, Build and expand it further,” Pangandaman said.
Finally, on agriculture, Pangandaman said she hopes to make farmers and fisherfolk more productive and expressed support for their services and to mechanize and use technology in their processes to have self-sufficiency and self-security and lower food prices in the country.
Pangandaman said the DBM shall make every effort to pass the budget before year-end.
“We will endeavor to pass the budget on time with the help of our friends from Congress,” Pangandaman said.
“The DBM will endeavor to craft a budget anchored on the eight-point socioeconomic agenda towards sustainable and inclusive budget for prosperity and economic transformation,” she added.
Meanwhile, Pangandaman also mentioned the budget reform agenda, referring to the Marcos administration’s priority legislative measures, the National Government Rightsizing Program (NGRP) and the Budget Modernization Bill.
On the NGRP, Pangandaman expressed support for the SONA directive of the President to strengthen the entire organization through the implementation of structural and procedural reforms that will ensure the government’s efficiency and productivity.
However, she pointed out that NGRP is not synonymous to mass layoff.
“Rightsizing is not a mass layoff. It is strengthening the entire government structure in order to help our bureaucracy to have an agile, efficient, responsive and technology-driven workforce,” Pangandaman said.
Another reform is the institutionalization of the Cash-Based Budgeting System (CBS) or the Budget Modernization Bill, which will strengthen fiscal discipline among government employees.
The CBS aims to address bottlenecks in obligations which will lead to on time implementation and disbursement of the government’s programmed projects.
“We will use and allocate our scarce resources to be able to finance our priority programs and projects. We will ensure that every peso in our GAA (General Appropriations Act) will be spent and implemented timely,” Pangandaman said. – Angela Celis
